General Overview of How a Bill Becomes a Law. Pay attention to all the places where a bill could die.

1. For use with section 6.4

2. 1. Standing Committees
 these are committees that continually exist
because there is always some issue or bill
for the members to deal with
 see chart on page 181

3. 2. Select Committees
 when a bill or issue arises that is not
covered by a standing committee, a
special committee, called a select
committee, is created temporarily

4. 3. Joint Committees
 there are a few committees that are made
up of members from both the Senate and
the HOR
 these committees usually have
investigative duties to find out information
about important topic of national concern
to help guide policy and law-making

5. 4. Conference Committees
 consisting of members from both houses,
these committees try to work out
differences between House and Senate
versions of bills

6.  legislative
branch
 makes laws

7.  bill:
• a proposal for a law
A. Introduction
• most bills can begin in either the House of
Representatives (HOR) or the Senate
• all bills specifically dealing with money (money bills)
must begin in the HOR
• bills introduced into the HOR are dropped into a box
called the hopper
• bills introduced into the Senate are read aloud by the
person introducing it

8. 1. Assigned a Number
• when the bill is introduced it is given a number
• in the HOR it is assigned a number beginning with
H.R.
• in the Senate it is assigned a number beginning
with S.
2. Steering Committee
• if the bill is important enough, the Steering
Committee sends it to a standing committee or a
select committee is specially created for this issue

9.  “Committee Action”
 committees review bills before they are sent
back to the “floor” for debate and vote
1. can accept the bill as it is without making
any changes
2. can make changes to the bill
• Riders: ONLY in the Senate; an amendment added
to the bill that is unrelated to the topic of the bill
3. may replace the bill with an alternative on
the same subject

10. 4. “Pigeonhole”
• the committee can choose to ignore the bill
altogether
• this will cause the bill to “die”
5. “kill bill”
• the committee can decide that the bill is altogether
no good and will reject it

11.  “Floor Action”
1. In the House of Representatives
• the Rules Committee determines when the bill
should be debated and sets the time limit for
debate – each member’s time and the duration of
the entire debate
• the Speaker of the House monitors debate and
the time limits
• members will take turns giving their opinions
favoring or opposing the bill

12. 2. In the Senate
• the Senate will usually debate the bills in
numerical order
• by default, Senators do not have a time limit on
debate

13. 2. In the Senate
a. Filibuster
 occurs when a single Senator or group of Senators agree to
never stop speaking about the bill
 the goal is to defeat the bill by having it withdrawn by the
Senate
 Longest Filibuster: Strom Thurmond, 24 hours, 18 minutes,
attempting to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957
b. Cloture
 this is a vote, usually before debate begins, to set a 1 hour
limit for each Senator to speak
 requires 60 votes
 this is done to prevent a filibuster

14. 1. Voice Vote
• a general vote of “yea” and “nay”
• it does not record each member’s vote
2. Standing Vote
• each member will stand up when called for “in
favor”, “all opposed”, “abstentions”
• each member’s vote is recorded

15. 3. Roll-Call Vote
• each member’s name is called and their vote is
announced aloud
a. computerized vote
 computers have replaced many of these methods of
voting in Congress
 each member’s vote is recorded

16.  each bill must be passed by both houses
of Congress before the President sees it
 the entire process begins in the other
house all over again

17.  “Conference Action”
 the final version of the bill passed by both
houses must be identical
 if the changes are made after it goes to the
other house a conference committee
meets to create a version that can be
agreed upon by both houses

18. 1. Approve
• if the President thinks the bill is a “good bill for
the nation” then he will sign it into law
2. Disapprove (Veto)
• if the President does not think the bill is “good”
then he will send it back to Congress with
suggestions for changes

19. 2. Disapprove (Veto)
a. Congressional Override
 if Congress has overwhelming support for a vetoed bill, it can
vote to over turn the President’s veto
 this requires 2/3 vote of both houses
3. Pocket Veto
• if Congress submits a bill with less than 10 days
remaining in the session, the President can veto a bill
by not taking any action on it all – letting it sit
• when this happens, the bill dies without ever being
finally decided